Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

GOP primary voters won’t buy what the far right is peddling by Jennifer Rubin "Right Turn"
Washington Post ^ | March 20, 2014 | Jennifer Rubin

Posted on 03/21/2014 10:45:31 AM PDT by Innovative

Why are all these challengers bombing? A better question is, why did the D.C.-based right-wing groups and politicians like Rand Paul think these people were credible candidates? Perhaps it is the self-appointed protectors of conservative orthodoxy who are badly out of touch and entirely incompetent in vetting candidates. The good news for the GOP: Nearly all of these flaky figures will wipe out before the general election. They must do so if the GOP is to hold or grow the House majority and take back the Senate.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: conservatives; elections; teaparty
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-57 next last
To: Innovative
The real question is “Do we want to win, or just prefer whining after the elections, when the Dems win?”

First, there are a lot of people here who prefer the latter. These are the folks that are happy to nominate candidates who are unelectable in a general election, and then use their loss to highlight their belief that we are going to hell in a handbasket.

Second, if there ever was such a thing as an "establishment" hack, Jennifer Rubin is it. She makes a good point now and again, but it is hard to take someone so unimaginative, so lacking in vision, and so wedded to running "moderate" candidates too terribly seriously. I can see why most actual conservatives would be skeptical of anything she writes.

Third, I do agree we need to run good candidates. We should be nominating the most conservative candidates that CAN win. No more Sharon Angles or Christine O'Donnell's please. This is not TEA Party specific. It wasn't the TEA Party that got us that idiot Todd Akin - that was the social conservative, Huckabee wing of the party. Had we nominated the Palin supported TEA Party candidate Sarah Steelman, we would have won that Senate seat. Nor is this an endorsement of only supporting "mainstream" Republican candidates. Plenty of those lost as well where a good solid conservative might have won. The key is nominating the most conservative candidate that CAN actually win a general election. This means the candidate can't have a ton of baggage and skeletons in their closet, the candidate can't have said stupid things about rape, the candidate should have the political skills to actually win general elections (usually that means starting out at the very local level and gaining political skills on the way up to higher office), etc.

21 posted on 03/21/2014 11:28:39 AM PDT by Longbow1969
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Longbow1969

How Karl Rove, Inc. wasted conservative donors’ $300 million

Oddly enough, perhaps the biggest loser in last week’s Republican debacle wasn’t even on the ballot. He didn’t shake a single hand, nuzzle the napes of any newborn babes or promise eager voters pie in the sky or peace on Earth. His name was Karl Rove. And all he actually did was squander a staggering $300 million by backing candidates who turned winnable races into laughable routs, producing tepid ads transforming would-be zealots into couch potatoes and firmly establishing himself as the political world’s pre-eminent empty-suit analyst.

Perhaps even worse, he set himself up as the clearinghouse for wealthy conservative donors, hand-picking which candidates and super PACs to support and which to send away empty-handed. He convinced the GOP’s high-dollar donors that he alone was the “almighty architect” — the “Rovitect,” as it were — who could single-handedly end President Obama’s reign.

In so doing, he confirmed, as Bernie Madoff proved, that it is easy to con the wealthy 1 percent out of their fortunes if you claim to be an expert and create your own echo chamber.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2960384/posts


22 posted on 03/21/2014 11:31:41 AM PDT by jimbo123
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: EQAndyBuzz
We put up some real doozies for senate in an election we needed to desperately win.

Yeah, that Tommy Thompson was a doozy of a Tea Party far right radical all right.

23 posted on 03/21/2014 11:33:42 AM PDT by Mygirlsmom (Washington: "I cannot tell a lie". Obama: "I cannot tell.....I lie")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Innovative; Jim Robinson; TheOldLady; Old Sarge
Actually it's YOU who doesn't get the message. FR is not the place to shill your anti-Tea Party Crap.

Here again is a message to you from the boss....

 

To: Innovative

Ronald Reagan was a great man. Not a surrender monkey like you. KMA!!

21 posted on 02/21/2014 6:23:34 PM PST by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

 

24 posted on 03/21/2014 11:35:51 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Innovative

“On the other hand we have had some lulus who have run under the tea party label.”

I do not believe we have ever had any tea party candidate say stuff that rises to the stupidity level of things that Pelosi, Reid, Cummings, Waters, Rangel, Jackson-Lee, etc. routinely say. If the media, democrats and republicans would not attack every Tea Party candidate that made a stupid statement, things would be better. The GOP-E has been responsible for torpedoing as many tea party candidates as the media and the democrats.


25 posted on 03/21/2014 11:45:34 AM PDT by jospehm20
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Innovative

We fight with the army we have, surrender monkeys notwithstanding.


26 posted on 03/21/2014 11:49:20 AM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EQAndyBuzz

2012 American Crossroads Battleground States Senate Results:

Wisconsin: Tommy Thompson = LOSS
Florida: Connie Mack = LOSS
Virginia: George Allen = LOSS

The Architect = 0 for 3.

Not much of an architect, unless he’s working for the demoncrats.


27 posted on 03/21/2014 11:51:46 AM PDT by jimbo123
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Innovative
Before you have a knee-jerk reaction -- which is what I had when I first saw the title and read the article -- I recommend reading the entire article, take a second look and stop and think.

That's asking an awful lot. It's much more fun to rant.

28 posted on 03/21/2014 11:52:34 AM PDT by Hugin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SoConPubbie

Look into her background. She is a neocon par excellence: a liberal Democrat pretending to be conservative in order to promote open borders and a neocon policy.

It’s infuriating that such a non-conservative, intellectually mediocre hack is given such a high profile, prestigious position in the media to supposedly represent conservatives.


29 posted on 03/21/2014 11:53:50 AM PDT by Monmouth78
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Innovative

We need more Ted Cruz candidates and less Sharron Angle candidates. I ahree with GOP-E on the Angle types. What GOP-E doesn’t get is that they have some crappy candidates as well. Tommy Thompson, Pete Hoekstra, and Connie Mack come to mind.


30 posted on 03/21/2014 11:57:33 AM PDT by Darren McCarty (Abortion - legalized murder for convenience)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Innovative

Nothing like the leftie post telling me about why I should vote for someone they like


31 posted on 03/21/2014 12:02:16 PM PDT by Nifster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Innovative

bleeeech.... she is as conservative as George Will...no thanks very much


32 posted on 03/21/2014 12:03:24 PM PDT by Nifster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Darren McCarty

Mourdock got a higher vote % than Mack. And Karl Rove and Reince Priebus went nuts spending money on Mack.


33 posted on 03/21/2014 12:07:13 PM PDT by jimbo123
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Mygirlsmom

“Yeah, that Tommy Thompson was a doozy of a Tea Party far right radical all right.”

I’ll take who is Richard Mourdock for 300 Alex. Or Christine O’Donnel? Hmm.. How about those TEA Party candidates that did win? Marco Rubio. Kelly Ayotte? How are they working out for us?

It works both ways. I don’t want RINO candidates in there any more than anyone here. What I do want is well vetted candidates who can make a difference. Or else we wind up with the Ayotte’s and the Rubio’s of the world.

However to get rid of them, first you need to be in charge. Then you need your constituents to hold you to a conservative standard. And when they don’t you primary them. Just like we are doing to Grahm and McConnell.

I don’t want the establishment. But frankly, with or without the TEA Party the GOP is winning the Senate. The only way the rats are going to hold the senate is if conservatves stay home. We did in 2012 and we got another four years of Obama.

The best way to silence Conservatives, let the rats win. A least if the GOPe wins, voices like Cruz’s will be heard. There is no way in hell that a Republican majority in the senate would silence Cruz.


34 posted on 03/21/2014 12:21:50 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz ("Heck of a reset there, Hillary")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: jimbo123

“The Architect = 0 for 3.”

Which of those states did Romney win?


35 posted on 03/21/2014 12:30:23 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz ("Heck of a reset there, Hillary")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Innovative
conservatives need to be more selective before lining up behind someone, just because they declare themselves conservative.

And you and yours need to be more selective before lining up behind GOP incumbents and GOPe anointed ones, just because they declare themselves "winnable."

36 posted on 03/21/2014 12:35:18 PM PDT by workerbee (The President of the United States is DOMESTIC ENEMY #1!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Longbow1969

I think Christine should have agreed to be dunked into the flowing stream from the bridge to end the question of whether or not she was a witch. The election might have shifted in her favor had she agreed to it.


37 posted on 03/21/2014 12:36:21 PM PDT by Mashood
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Mashood

The election might have shifted in her favor if the GOP-e had put more energy into pointing out her opponent’s many flaws instead of sending her down the river for the sin of winning the primary.


38 posted on 03/21/2014 12:47:59 PM PDT by Mygirlsmom (Washington: "I cannot tell a lie". Obama: "I cannot tell.....I lie")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Innovative

They’re peddling fiscal sanity beotch.


39 posted on 03/21/2014 12:48:59 PM PDT by jersey117
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Innovative
Jennifer Rubin is a NEOconservative columnist hack.

Fixed it for you.

She is awful. She's like Bill Kristol minus the femininity.

40 posted on 03/21/2014 12:50:05 PM PDT by Forgotten Amendments (On the wrong side of history.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-57 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson